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from the They-wouldn't-do-THAT...-would-they? dept.
CIA developed plans to kidnap Julian Assange, per report
The Trump administration's CIA actively developed plans to kidnap or assassinate Wikileaks founder Julian Assange during his seclusion in London's Ecuadorian embassy, according to a detailed new report from Yahoo News. Scenarios included abducting Assange from the embassy, intercepting a Russian effort to extract him, or an outright assassination attempt. While none of the operations were ever approved, they paint an alarming portrait of intelligence agencies' ongoing obsession with Wikileaks and its controversial founder.
As sources, Yahoo cites conversations with more than 30 former US officials. Among those, eight provided details on plans to kidnap Assange.
The report mostly details operations developed during the Trump administration, which placed fewer restraints on the CIA and was less troubled by the implications of launching direct operations against a figure many saw as a journalist. The issue became particularly heated in March of 2017, when Wikileaks published a catalog of hacking tools developed by the CIA. After that, "WikiLeaks was a complete obsession of Pompeo's," a source told Yahoo.
Also at The Guardian and The Hill.
Previously: Wikileaks and CIA Hacking Tools -- Security Firms Assess Impact as Tech Companies Offered Access
(Score: -1, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday September 28 2021, @09:37PM (6 children)
I remember "Can't we just drone him?"
Of course, Snopes and all the rest of the Dem-aligned "fact checkers" deny it ever happened.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28 2021, @10:20PM (4 children)
Nice whataboutism, one administration stays in the law while the other attempts to go all fascist, and your first inclination is to circle the wagons and protect Derr Trumpfler.
You are a sad sad sad sad sad traitorous US citizen.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28 2021, @10:56PM (1 child)
You ain't especially bright, are you Boyo? There was no Hillary administration. People smarter than you voted Trump in to keep her out.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28 2021, @11:24PM
And still smarter people refused to vote for either turd.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Mykl on Tuesday September 28 2021, @11:18PM
I don't think it's whataboutism in this case. We had a Secretary of State who was actively exploring options to drone him, then the next administration giving the CIA the latitude to come up with kill plans. It's significant that these two events covered the two major parties (well, sort of - I think Trump is really his own party).
Senior representatives from "both sides" wanted to kill him. Fortunately, cooler heads were able to prevail in both cases and Assange is still alive.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @05:31PM
If you think the presidents control the intelligence apparatus you are living in a dream world. The intel and military are controlled by The International Jew (and their shabbos goy pals).
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Tork on Tuesday September 28 2021, @10:21PM
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/julian-assange-drone-strike/ [snopes.com].
Snopes doesn't deny it, just says says "unproven" with some specifics of the context and how they arrived there. In short there is an email exchange that's about the topic at hand but is missing the 'drone' quip. In other words, she didn't say it on the record... which we already knew because there's not a damn thing preventing evidence of that from being posted ANYWHERE on the internet. However...
That's a wimpy ass "denial" on both Snopes' AND Clinton's part if you ask me. Hell I did a better job supporting your point WITH Snopes than you did by automatically ignoring it. Heh.
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